Sometimes, there are no extra visuals to photo-match a piece

Forget sometimes ... that's almost always the case with pretty much everything that's game-used before the advent of the MLB Authentication program in 2001. That was the year MLB started stickering and databasing items from the field of play creating a whole new playing field for memorabilia. But this month's piece in this Collecting Game-used series isn't from that past era, either.

This one is from just 2014 ... an item that's newer, but one from when the capture-every-play MLB Film Room and complete data with authentication for every pitch where a ball was used didn't exist. It's stickered but short of finding a pirated game video online (I did a brief search and found nothing), it's a ball that I can only show here and then offer up from info from a game's summary to help tell its story.

You can keep reading to see the details.

Continue reading →

I've presented a lot of baseballs in this Collecting Game-used series, but this new low-priced pickup of mine isn't one from the discount bin (my usual for baseballs as I'm a bargain-hunter) yet it was a steal in my eyes.

It was a mere $50 -- that's cheap for a ball -- and it's one that comes with a little extra history attached to go with that tiny piece of "Seashore Paspalum, Platinum TE" (that's a grass type) in the seams from Truist Park ... so, yes, that means this is another Atlanta Braves ball.

A visit to MLB Authentication and then to the MLB Film Room captured the moment where this ball's life began and ended and it presented something slightly different than my previous visual evidence shows (the play happened differently than I imagined ... you'll see). Yet, it was still a first for a highly watched rookie's career. It's also a first for me in that its authentication listing shows a few extra pitches, too, where the Film Room shows that part of the listing to not be accurate. (It happens but not often.) A foul ball before this one went to the backstop and the umpire reaches into his bag to give a new ball to the pitcher for my play.

So, who is it and what happened? You can keep reading to see the details ... and the ball in action.

Continue reading →

A name I didn't expect to see again in MLB arrived in Atlanta this month and that got me thinking about a stash of game-used baseballs I had picked up on the cheap long ago but hadn't yet posted about in this Collecting Game-used series.

I did some digging and, yep, that name was in there.

Robinson Cano is filling in at second base for the Braves right now after Ozzie Albies' foot injury has him out until optimistically late next month and he's that name. My find is nothing dramatic but it's a ball from a past game with him attached that was deep in my $10 stash -- yep, only $10 -- from awhile back, and it turned out it's a ball with a little surprise to it thanks to its MLB Authentication and clips one can see right now on the MLB Film Room.

You can keep reading to see the details ... and the ball in action.

Continue reading →

This ball isn't that ball ... but imagine if it was.

That was my first thought when I dug out this one from my reserves for this Collecting Game-used series last night as St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Miles Mikolas was two outs away from a career game -- a no-hitter that came up one strike short of reality -- Tuesday against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

My second thought was, man, how much has the game-used world changed in just a few years with a couple new touches from MLB and MLB Authentication? The MLB Film Room didn't exist back when this baseball was used -- details below -- and the notation on the authentication is pretty basic ... real basic. That's been improved since then, too. This is a game-used ball with some nice use to it (came from a grab-bag style box) and with a couple of MLB All-Stars attached from a game a little earlier in their careers. Since there was no Film Room then I can't instantly call up a clip of the play and see it in action ... though there's a chance the game is online somewhere. I've been spoiled being able to photo-match or at least see videos for almost every ball I've had here recently ... I'll let the basics tell the story on this one this time.

Keep reading to see the details.

Continue reading →

If you're a regular reader of The Buzz, then you know that Collecting Game-used  is a monthly department offering up a quick look (well, at least most of the time) at a piece of game-used memorabilia in action.

A deep part of my stash for this series are MLB Authenticated baseballs -- a simple kind of item that you can find with more details than ever and plenty of players' names often attached -- and that's what we're getting back to this time. Why do I say that? Well, with the MLB lockout, the MLB Film Room video database that lets you see pretty much anything from recent seasons went dark just like all those rosters on the MLB site and the MLB Network -- at least for current players. All those trivial clips of memorabilia-making moments that aren't home runs or strikeouts are back ... and this time I'll offer up something that we won't be seeing much of again ... some pitcher vs. pitcher action.

You can keep reading to see the details ... and the ball in action.

Continue reading →

This month's item in the Collecting Game-used series is one that's simple ... but it shows the life of a ball can be brief but still have some fun trivia attached.

This one? It's another of my $10 bargain-bin balls picked up about a year ago now -- but it's one that now has two World Series rings attached to it. It's nothing too dramatic in terms of use, but visually it does show more than others out there might when it comes to game-used baseballs.

You can keep reading to see the details ... and the ball in action thanks to the MLB Film Room.

Continue reading →

This month's Collecting Game-used item isn't from deep in my stash or some treasure I had to research after finding it on the secondary market -- this one's ironclad but the condition here offers up some interesting questions.

It's a ball taken from the field of play just 20 days ago and you can see the precise pitch and its big-league moment after the jump. For me, this was a first -- my first Bo Bichette game-used item -- and I landed it on the cheap via the home team when the Blue Jays came to town. But, as you can see here, that's a pretty interesting mark where you can literally perhaps see the physics involved after a round ball hit a round bat spinning at a smooth (and documented) 2,046 revolutions per minute. And, if you view the video of it, it's not hard to imagine how those marks perhaps came to be.

You can keep reading to see the details ... and the ball in action.

Continue reading →

As you probably know if you're a regular reader here, Buzz is a fan of the game-used bargain bin just as much as any other ... so this is a result of one of those digs.

This month's item in this Collecting Game-used series? Well, it's another $10 game-used baseball from a recent Philadelphia Phillies firesale -- and it's one with a likely future All-Star's name attached. That name is Dansby Swanson, the Atlanta Braves shortstop who's in the midst of a career year this summer with new highs in hits, doubles, homers and RBI with plenty of time left to play.

The ball? Well, you can keep reading to see the details and see it in action.

Continue reading →

What did you land for your last $10 spent 0n collectibles? There's really no wrong answer there -- and there are a lot of possibilities for collectors of pretty much anything out there right now -- but not that long ago I landed a dozen game-used baseballs from the Philadelphia Phillies for, yep, $10 apiece.

This is one of those balls -- and it even included a BallQube -- but I still think it's a nice item for the price.

It wasn't a blind-bag scenario as I picked off a dozen MLB Authenticated game-used baseballs from the cheapest of the cheap -- picking out highlights from a spreadsheet -- as the team was burning off end-of-year inventory along with other balls from the past. The cool part about collecting from the MLB bargain bin for stuff from recent years? You can often find your exact ball (or see other dated game-used items) over in the MLB Film Room, which is a searchable database of pretty much every single play.

You can keep reading to see the details on this one ... and the ball in action.

Continue reading →

Here's the sequel to my recent Cardinals game-used baseball grab from the bargain bin -- it's not quite as flashy as last month, but this one's used by star for the home team and a win for the price of a blaster box if you ask me.

As I noted last time, this was a blind-bag buy ... all you can control is picking the date of your ball. I scouted the schedule and found Game 1 of a doubleheader from last September that had a pair of notable starters and a whole lot of runs scored ... meaning more chances at a notable ball or play.

Thanks to the relatively new MLB Film Room you can easily find clips of plays -- even the mundane ones -- and literally all three pitches where this ball was authenticated as used can be found there.

You can keep reading to see the details ... and the ball in action.

Continue reading →

Earlier this week -- Tuesday, actually -- I got lured into grabbing a couple of game-used balls from the bargain bin of the St. Louis Cardinals via MLB.com after the team's Authentics division sent out an email revealing a slasher sale on 2020 game-used baseballs.

After all, a new year is here and there are already plenty more fresh gamers coming their way.

What I didn't expect from a blind-bag kind of buy was a strong pairing far more impressive than the $22.99 price tag might lead you to believe -- and my strategies for potentially landing a stronger ball paid off, too. What do I mean? Well, they let you pick the date of your ball -- at least if the date is available -- and I quickly scouted the schedule to land upon Game 1 of a doubleheader from an interleague match-up last September that had a pair of notable starters and a whole lot of runs scored ... meaning more chances at a key ball between the throwers or the hitters. (It's also worth noting again that the MLB Film Room also adds value to the basic balls out there en masse, too, as you can easily find clips of plays ... even the mundane ones.)

I did two baseballs to get free shipping and to help my odds ... and it worked. Twice.

You can keep reading to see the details ... and one ball in action.

Continue reading →

The life of this fully authenticated game-used MLB ball isn't all that impressive -- I liked it for a team clearance $10 pick-up, though given player names attached -- but the reason you see it here for this month's Collecting Game-used series item is that it's an example of how something launched online last fall might spark more interest in game-used memorabilia.

Thanks to the MLB Film Room, you can find countless memorable (and many forgettable) video clips of plays from past games all in database form. You can search by names, players, teams, plays, etc., and to a degree that should add some interest to game-used pieces like this ball ... and maybe some value beyond the authentication statements that are also in a database with every ball.

You can keep reading to see the details ... and the ball in action.

Continue reading →